The main prepaid medicine companies - grouped in the UAS, the Argentine Health Union - increased their fees by an average of 174% in 2024, compared to inflation that was half that. The reason? The delay that they had and that, according to the Government, they had ironed out through an agreement that served as political support for the then Minister of Economy, who was also the presidential candidate for Unión por la Patria.
The official action began in a game of tweezers between the Chief of Staff and the Ministries of Economy and Health. An "ideal enemy" carefully chosen by the Casa Rosada but with very favorable elements to have broad sectors on its side; especially the middle class, today severely punished by the rate increases, by schools, and desperate by the excessive increase in prepaid fees. Businessmen say they no longer have the increases collected in January in their coffers because "we gave it to the provider and we spent it on supplies." In 2023, prepaid bills increased by 134% while the CPI was 211% and "health inflation" was 227%. The national government says that with these actions of denouncing "cartelization" and asking the Justice to roll back the increases, they will stop the abuse of prepaid businessmen who "confused price with cost." According to the officials who drafted these administrative and judicial actions, from now on "they must act as health providers and not as financial entities with people's money," says a source who sat in the Cabinet and in the offices of the SSS, which today are run by Claudio Stivelman and Gabriel Oriolo. "Mario Lugones kicked the board, suddenly told us 'I have instructions not to talk to you anymore' and chose us as enemies," says one businessman who was on the UAS board.